Estes Park Breaking News, Sports, Weather, Traffic

Colorado ski resorts adjust uphill travel rules for skiers on way up

A crowd of uphill skiers gather at the base of Keystone's River Run trail early Saturday morning. Resorts are sculpting uphill travel policies as more skiers climb trails in the early-morning and evening hours. (Jason Blevins, The Denver Post)

The dogs are a yipping tangle as a gaggle of underdressed skiers click into their skinny skis and start climbing Keystone's perfectly groomed River Run trail.

By dawn, more than 50 skiers are climbing Keystone ski area, hugging the treeline as growling groomers comb the fresh snow.

"I call it my Stairmaster with a view," said Breckenridge mayor John Warner, who first started skinning up his home hill 24 years ago and still logs 80 pre-dawn mornings skinning up Breck's groomed trails.

He used to do it with a couple of buddies. They never saw anyone else. Now, it's common to see 50 people every weekend morning, climbing to the top and skiing down — the hardcore logging multiple laps — before the lifts turn. Saturday at Keystone, it was an athlete's affair, with one local identifying the bobbing headlights by their resumes. They are Summit County's champions — ski mountaineering, running, mountain biking — sharing brief, breathless greetings as they climb.

"The easy and safe access for training is awesome," said Ram Mikulas, whose speedy 2,000 vertical-foot jaunts up Keystone are preparing him for the 40-mile Elk Mountain Grand Traverse in March. "It's such a great full-body workout."

Advertisement

Resorts across Colorado — and the West — have revisited their uphill travel regulations in recent years as skiers like Mikulas continue to flock in the early-morning and late-evening hours. With the advent of increasingly lightweight and burly alpine touring equipment — namely featherweight Dynafit boots, bindings and skis — and the explosive growth of ski mountaineering races, a surging number of uphill skiers are crawling up ski areas.

Two years ago, uphill skiing was a sort of "don't ask, don't tell," with the few skinning skiers keeping a low profile as they climbed in the dark. Today, resort chieftains such as Crested Butte Mountain Resort's Tim and Ethan Mueller and Breckenridge's Pat Campbell are regulars among their hill's climbing cadre.

And the no-policy uphill approach is becoming a thing of the past. Nearly every resort has recently tweaked its uphill travel rules to address things like dog poop, hours, parking, closures, reflective outerwear and lights. Breckenridge's recent revamp includes free early-morning parking and specific trails for climbing. Aspen Skiing Co. has specific climbing routes and regulations for each of its four mountains, including Buttermilk, which sees hundreds of climbers on busy days. Arapahoe Basin will release its new climbing regulations soon.

"My idea is that in time, uphill travel will become an amenity like a halfpipe or terrain park," said Pete Swenson, whose COSMIC ski mountaineering race series has grown from five races in 2007 to 13 races this season. "My hope is that these smaller areas will really jump on the bandwagon. It is something that can easily make people choose one resort over another."

This year Swenson has races at CS Irwin Lodge above Crested Butte, Chapman Hill in Durango and the Grand Mesa's Powderhorn. Those smaller ski areas — especially in New England and the Midwest — can change their image by embracing uphill travel.

"When you are skinning, suddenly that little 1,000-vertical-foot ski area becomes a big deal," Swenson said.